Tales from the Archives: The Movie Church Oct. 1928 Part 2

This week's parish monthly calendar is from September 1928 and shows us the films scheduled to be shown in October of that year.

The first film of the October 21st double feature was A Dog of the Regiment (1927). So far this is the third Rin Tin Tin movie shown at the Church. Like many of the other films the parishioners of this Church watched,  A Dog of the Regiment was a Warner Bros Vitaphone production. Sadly it appears that this is a lost film.

The second film of the double feature was The Night Flyer (1928). 
6/1/12 Edit: According to Art Pierce, executive director for the Capitol Theatre in Rome, New York the does indeed exist! A 35mm print of the film will be shown on August 10th 2012 accompanied by live music. More information about the showing can be found here.
The star of this movie was William Boyd, who I've discussed in earlier posts as this Church showed several of his films. His co-star in this movie was Jobyna Ralston, pictured below.

Ralston was a best known for being paired with silent film comedian Harold Lloyd. The duo made several films together, including the classic comedies Girl Shy (1924), The Freshman (1925), and The Kid Brother (1927). Ralston was named a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1923, which was an award given to the best young actresses of the year by the Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers from 1922 - 1934.  Ralston also had a supporting role in Wings (1927), the first movie to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Ralston married her Wings co-star actor Richard Arlen in 1927. In 1931 Ralston became a mother and decided to quit acting. Ralston did a couple of talkies before she ended her career, one of which was a Rin Tin Tin movie.

The full title of this week's short is Hunting for Germans in Berlin with Will Rogers (1927). Will Rogers was one of the most famous people of the 1920s and 30s. Rogers acted in films, vaudeville, and radio and also wrote a newspaper column. His popularity skyrocketed thanks to his cowboy image and humorous social commentary. Sadly Rogers died in a plane crash at the age of 55 in 1935.

On October 28th one feature was screened with two shorts. The full length film was Ham and Eggs at the Front (1927) starring Myrna Loy in an early role. Loy started her career in the silent film era but become famous in the 1930s. Loy's best known role is that of Nora Charles, one half of a husband and wife crime-solving team alongside actor William Powell, in The Thin Man film series. Loy regretted her role in Ham and Eggs at the Front because she put on blackface to play a black barmaid who was also a German spy. This movie was clearly a product of its time as "Ham" and "Eggs" were also black characters played by white actors. Loy referred to the film as a "tasteless slapstick comedy." We'll probably never know how tasteless it was since this appears to be a lost film.

The first of the two shorts this week was War Feathers (1926), a Hal Roach Our Gang comedy. War Feathers features the Our Gang kids playing Cowboys and Indians. The short still survives today.
The second short was A Jungle Triangle (1928) from the animated Aesop's Fables series. This Church must have really like the Aesop's Fables cartoons as they showed them quite often.

Tales from the Archives: The Movie Church March 1928

This parish monthly calendar dates from March 1928 and lists the movies shown that were to be shown in April. This time the format is that of a double feature followed by one short.

The first feature film shown on April 1st was the Western Pals in Paradise (1926). It seems that the film no longer exists.

The next film was Jim, the Conqueror (1927). Like Pals in Paradise it was a Western and I couldn't find much about it. It appears that this is also a lost film. The title role was played by actor William Boyd, pictured above. Boyd would become famous for playing cowboy Hopalong Cassidy in a popular film series throughout the 1930s and 1940s.

Last week we looked at a Stan Laurel short and an Oliver Hardy short. This time we finally get a short with both of them! However, it is not quite what it seems as although both comedians were in this short they were not a team yet. Not only does this short survive, but you can watch it here at YouTube.

Silence (1926) was the first feature for April 8th. The film was made by Cecil B. DeMille's DeMille Pictures Corporation. Well-known actor H.B. Warner was among the cast. It seems that this film no longer exists.

The second feature this week was Her Man o' War (1926), a World War I drama. Like Silence, it was also made by DeMille Pictures Corporation. The actress pictured is Jetta Goudal who was quite popular in the 1920s but is virtually unknown today. Her Man o' War also features William Boyd. According to IMDB a print of the film exists at the UCLA Film and Television Archives.

The short for this week was an Aesop's Fables cartoon called A Bull and a Yard Wide (1927). I wrote more about this animated series in my previous article about this Church (Feb. 1928).

The first feature for April 15th was Steel Preferred (1926). This is yet another William Boyd film, the third in this listing to be exact. The movie doesn't appear to survive.

The second feature was The Unknown Soldier (1926). The film starred Charles Emmett Mack, an actor who was discovered by D.W. Griffith and worked for Warner Brothers. Sadly Mack died in 1927 at the age of 26 in an automobile accident. According to IMDB a print of the film exists at the UCLA Film and Television Archives.

The short for the last week in this article was Should Husbands Pay? (1926). This short was co-directed and co-written by Stan Laurel. It was produced by famous comedy producer Hal Roach, pictured above.

Come back on Sunday for the Weekly Wrap-Up!